The Other John 3:16

 

Text: 1 John 3:16-24

Focus: Sacrificial love

Function: to help people see the extent of the command to love one another

¹⁶We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. ¹⁷How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

¹⁸Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. ¹⁹And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him ²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, ²²and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

²³And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Good Morning. Sometimes one has to try to forgive us preachers for trying to be clever with the hopes that the cleverness will drive home the point. So, I was going to title this lesson from 1 John as “The Rest (instead of The Other) of John 3:16.”

But then I realized that the rest of John 3:16 is John 3:17. John 3:16 is probably so familiar to us that we could all quote it together from the King James: For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life.

It is the first bible verse that I learned to memorize and it speaks to us of our great hope.

I should preach a sermon on it sometime.

But the rest of John 3:16 is john 3:17 which is the rest of the paragraph that the famous verse mentions. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world would be saved through him.

God sent Jesus to save the world.

And it comes, the next verse after that, to everyone who believes in Jesus.

We are going to focus on what it means to believe in a few weeks when we are doing the membership class. Let us understand that it means to acknowledge more than the fact that he existed, or that God exists. It means like a marriage, we place our trust in him. We become permanent partners with him. He makes a covenant with us to adopt us into his family and the metaphors are either as his bride or as his children.

We are united and we place our hope and trust in the fact that he raised from the dead. When we face the difficulties that actually following him entails, we can remember that after suffering is resurrection..

So, the rest of John 3:16 is John 3:17 and I changed the title to “The Other John 3:16.”

And that is from 1 John.

The first John 3:16, “for God so loved the world…” ends in “...eternal life” this 2^nd John 3:16, from the letter we are reading this morning speaks of what that eternal life is.

I dusted off my Greek New Testament and looked up the word for eternal life. And the world literally means “without boundaries.”

At times it can indicate life after death, but for the most part, it indicates a life limitless in its possibilities. He is speaking of a life full because it is a life lived in God. God is in the world entire and by faith all the possibilities are opened up to us.

John 3:16 speaks to the path to this full life in God through trusting in Jesus. Sadly, we might have reduced it to mean that if we believe the right thing, then when we die, we get to go to heaven.

That is so limiting, I believe, as to what Jesus is actually trying to do with us for the rest of the world.

Believing in Jesus is walking in Jesus’ way of living and loving.

So, John 3:16, the one familiar to us speaks of God’s gift of Jesus to the world for the salvation of the world.

Jesus came to save the world. And again, it isn’t about getting into when we die, Jesus came to set the world back to the right.

The light of the world came to cast out the darkness. The darkness resided in the Political and religious authorities powers that didn’t include prosperity for everyone. And they were not too happy about his message, so they had him put to death in order to silence him.

So, 1 John 3:16 comes along and redirects us to the the current group of people who are here to change the world. In a second, I’ll tell you who that is.

The text says that we know love by this, Jesus showed us how to love by laying down his life for us. Jesus commanded us to follow in h is footsteps. So we should do likewise and lay down our lives for others.

And then he goes into our passage explaining to some degree just what he means by laying down our lives and loving others.

He tells us to look at our brothers and our sisters and see their needs and see if we have the abundance, help.

Several places the scriptures tell us to lend without the possibility of repayment.

No wonder his message upset the powers that be so much.

But the disciples took these words literally and started a community where everyone shared all of their resources so that there was enough for everyone.

And amazing thing happened then. It was similar in my mind to the feedings of the 5,000 and the 4,000. God supplied abundance back to them and the church grew. It didn’t just grow, but raced across the Roman empire and throughout the world.

Nobody was hoarding their resources anymore and there was enough to for everyone and such an abundance that they were able to take action and lift the poor in their communities out of poverty, who then joined the community and contributed back and the prosperity of the few became the prosperity of all as God promised.

So, the first paragraph of our passage calls us to follow the example of Jesus and be willing to sacrifice ourselves for others.

Romans 12:1 picks up the idea and calls us to present ourselves before God as living sacrifices.

And then, he doesn’t actually command us to kill ourselves in a sacrificial way, but to be generous to the point of sacrifice.

And it worked. And Jesus came to set free the oppressed and to change the story for those being exploited.

It means we care for others as much as we care for ourselves.

John does a masterful segue into the next paragraph. He picks up the theme of loving not just with our mouths but with our actions, “Word and deed,” he says. And then he talks about our conscience.

He mentions that there are times when we have doubts. Our hearts condemn us. We recognize the times when we have not loved as we should have when we know, according to this passage, that God sees our hearts.

I know that God’s grace has forgiven me and made me at peace with God through Jesus. But at times I don’t feel it.

And John is telling us at those times, recall the times when we have obeyed. When God’s Spirit has prompted us to do a good deed and care beyond our comfort zone, kind of like the joy we feel when we bake Kairos cookies because we know we can never be paid back.

John tells us to remind ourselves of those times and to let them be an inspiration to us.

And then he introduces a whole new subject that I am going to end with.

And he emphasizes that we do this because the Spirit of God is filling our hearts with the same compassion for others that God has for us.

It is the Spirit that leads us to do good.

How do we walk in the Spirit?

We learn to walk in the Spirit through prayer, contemplation, study of scripture, fellowship here at Church, enjoying art, walking in nature, getting lost in music. All those things that draw us into the light of the creative power of God.

Let the gentle nudges of the Holy Spirit lead you to do the good works we are called to. When you wonder if Christianity is working, recall the times when the Spirit lead you into an act of kindness, or forgiveness or generosity. It comforts our heart.

The Law Of Love

 

Text: 1 John 3:1-7

Focus: Sin and Love

Function: to help people see how knowing God changes them

1:See what love the Father has poured on us, that we should be called the children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. ³And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Good morning! This has always been a heavy passage for me. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, there was a season in my preaching where I focused on convicting people of their sins instead of leading them to the power of Christ to be made whole and free from sin.

At the time, as a new Christian who wanted to please the master, I had a “stop sinning” mentality. And I spent my life avoiding sin.

That may sound noble and pure, but the problem with it is that I spent my life focused on sin, and afraid of it, instead of on Jesus and his love which is not retribution for our sins, but restoration from the things that break us.

I suppose it makes and made a difference how I described sin at the time. I was a good brethren, a “Person of the Book” who loved Jesus and like Peter right before he denied Christ three times, was pretty sure that my will was strong enough to resist any temptation that came my way.

And it was an important season in my life. As verse 3 says, “all who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure.” Or one of the verses I remembered from my childhood from Psalm 119: How can a young man keep his way pure? By studying the word.

So, I got wrapped up in the purity culture that has dominated all religions from the beginning of time.

But then I grew in my faith.

It is important to remember that Jesus hung out with people who were considered impure. He hung out with the Lepers, who were forced to cover their faces and shout out whenever someone got near them that they were not pure. He hung out with people that the purity culture called sinners like Prostitutes and tax collectors and others. This really rose their ire. They were convinced that their standards of purity kept them in divine favor and allowing impure people into the society would lead to their eventual downfall. Purity was important and sometimes, people had no choice, there were simply forced into the impure class.

When Jesus ate with impure people, he was casting down this system that kept some in bondage and gave privilege to others. He was symbolically showing the Religious class who used purity as a way to include and exclude people that everyone is welcome in the Kingdom of God.

Everyone is welcome was a radical idea and it upset those who gained power, prestige and or wealth from the system. It was part of the political system, and Jesus’ message is indeed political as well as spiritual and he was confronting the powers that be.

All of that leads us to understand a different meaning for sin. I like to call it brokenness. The word in the Greek simply means to miss the mark. It ranges from simply making a mistake to committing an act of violence or evil.

And as we looked last week, Jesus came to save us from OUR sins AND the sins fo the world ENTIRE. (1 John 2:1-2). Everyone is forgiven their sins according to scripture. We haven’t emphasized that much in religion because sometimes religion is still about power and control. I try to make our faith about a transforming relationship with God that leads us to love one another.

Jesus set the example by loving and accepting as full participants in the kingdom those whom others felt justified by excluding based on religious dogma instead of the new commandment, Love one another.

My definition of sin, by the way, is anything that keeps us from loving others because that is how we are to show our love for God.

And again, I can focus on sin, or I can focus on connecting with the Spirit of God where the freedom lies.

I introduced the sermon with the words that this is a heavy passage. Verse 8 says, ⁶No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” That is the reason I was so sin focused.

It was a dilemma because I am not perfect and at that time, everything was a sin, so I failed all the time. And that lead me to doubt if it was all real because I prayed to not sin.

But then I studied the passage in the original language and read it to say that no one who abides in him keeps on committing sin.” The Greek makes it clear that no one who abides in God practices doing evil. They don’t make a habit of it.

I loved learning the verse from that perspective.

And that brings me back to the first paragraph of the passage about when the Kingdom of God starts.

I was taught not to sin because if I died with unconfessed sins, I probably would not make it to heaven.

But look at the passage. In verse 1 the author is amazed at the depth of God’s love that we get to be called the Children of God.

And then he clearly states that it isn’t a future blessing that God has given us. It starts here and now. Yes, there is a future blessing, but the family of God is the church here on earth.

I love the way he holds in tension the future of our eternal life and the present of our eternal life. He gives us the hope for both.

And that, he says, in verse 3 is why we want to keep ourselves pure.

So, what does purity mean if Jesus destroyed the ancient system of purity?

Well, Jesus made it clear in John when he said a whole new set of rules do I give you. And it is simple, love your neighbor as yourself.

Throughout his career, Jesus held on to this very simple message. Care for others the way you care for yourselves.

The path to God, and Jesus shows us the way to God, is through love. It isn’t through being able to abstain from temptation or emphasizing sins and an ancient purity culture. The path to God is through love.

We are still affected by the purity culture that still clouds our judgment and becomes wrong if it keeps us from loving the other.

For example, In our culture, Trans people, Gays, Lesbians, Bi-sexual and Queer people are still considered unclean by many who profess to love others unconditionally. And there can be sin attached to that when the system denies them the same civil rights that most of us have.

And again, in our political culture, the People of Color who are desperately seeking to save their lives at our border are denied access even at legal border crossings. And according to Jesus, there is one name for them, Neighbor. It isn’t drug runner, rapist, murderers, or illegal. Those are terms meant to kill your conscience so that you do not obey the command to love them as neighbor. Don’t fall for it, it is propaganda.

Last week my neighbor who listens to what I call “angry talk radio” all day was going on about how they are bringing diseases that we are already vaccinated against. He was calling them impure and is motivated by a political party who is choosing nationalism over their professed Christian faith.

As one who is called to teach what Jesus taught, I ask you to keep your eyes focused on the command to love your neighbor as yourself when you consider the political ramifications of how we as a nation either obey or refuse God with the refugees at our border.

And we have reverted to the false notion of pure and impure when we think of people on the other side of the aisle from us politically.

This kind of dualism does not reflect the love of Christ for everyone.

Now, we have to end on a positive note by looking at the last verse from the text.

Let me paraphrase it: “Everyone who examines a situation and does the right thing is righteous.”

We are made right in the eyes of God by doing the right thing. I call it following the way of Jesus.

And that message to love our neighbor as ourselves is as simple as do the right thing.

Forgiving the World

 

Text: 1 John 1:1-2:2

Focus: Forgiveness

Function: To see the universal nature of forgiveness

1:¹We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ²this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— ³what we have seen and heard we also declare to you so that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

2:¹My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, ²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Good morning and Happy Easter celebration. I have been focusing on the power, the meaning and the witness of the resurrection during my morning meditation.

Easter gives us hope and calms our fears in the midst of death and darkness. God is the light and now we also, are the light of the world and God is shining through us.

This passage, the confession, or the acknowledgment of sin in our lives is part of the foundation of our Christian life.

John, the author, tells us that if we deny that we have ever sinned and are not willing to confess our sins, then we make God out to be a liar since God said that we are in need of restoration.

I fear that in preaching about sin, people will get the wrong idea and will be filled with shame and lose the hope that the resurrection provides for us.

Early in my ministry, I realized that uncovering sin was meaty material for preaching and I was constantly making people aware of how much they need a savior.

And it is important, I believe, to God, that we acknowledge our need for restoration, or a savior.

I have often said that the church is made up of those who are humble enough to admit that they are not completely self-sufficient and they they are willing to depend on God for help and strength.

He tells us to confess our sins. The word for confess literally means “to say the same thing.” I believe that it means to admit something is not right.

Sin is probably best understood as brokenness. And Salvation from Jesus is healing for our brokenness. John is telling us in these early verses to humble ourselves and admit our need for God. We then see that God has indeed provided a way for us to life a meaningful life in a broken world.

When I say that I am saved, I am saying that I am in the process of restoration from God. God is healing me. God is restoring me. And I need a lot of restoring.

As I mentioned, I used to preach a sin focus and our need to overcome sin in order to live lives pleasing to God.

And then early on, God started showing me that instead of focusing on the fact that we are indeed sinners, I needed to focus my preaching on the power of God to live the life of love and sacrifice that serving Christ is all about.

We have been blessed to be a blessing to others.

And God has forgiven us. God is restoring us to spiritual wholeness. And that has also has consequences to our emotional and physical well being.

He starts out chapter 2 with the acknowledgment that we have not yet achieved the love for others and wholeness that God wants for us. So he tells us that when we are feeling this brokenness and it is affecting our well being, don’t lose hope but look up, or outward to God by admitting again, that we need God’s help.

I read that to say, “Don’t beat yourself up when you make a mistake.”

I love my therapists words that mistakes are actually learning opportunities and chances for us to grow. And well reasoned adults do learn from their mistakes and move on.

And Christ is here with us to give us the strength and hope to move on.

We are indeed born from above with God’s power when we give the Spirit of God the control in our lives.

It is God’s promise to us to be with us and to help us grow more and more into the image of the Christ, the light of the world.

And I emphasize that because it is also God’s job, the success of this is not in our hands anymore, but it relies on the promise of God for us.

And again, the promise is for the Spirit of God to dwell in us to give us the power to love like Jesus loved.

Some theologies will say that if you believe the right thing then you are saved and if you don’t believe those things, you are not saved. I love verse 2 of Chapter 2. Jesus died to save the sins of the world entire.

When I forgive someone who has hurt me, I am just doing what Jesus did for me already. He forgave me before I trusted in him.

We have taught that Jesus forgave the sins of the world entire from the cross. The author of the hymn “When He Was on the Cross….” has us imagining Jesus, in his divine power, looking through time, present, past and future, at the birth of every human soul and saying that he has forgiven them. He has forgiven me.

It is a beautiful image the God forgives each and every one of us.

For some reason, this Kairos, I have been more aware of the kind of people we are serving in the prison. I think of the young man who killed the man I did the funeral for and I realized that some day I may very well be sitting at a table with him, not knowing who he is and will be offering him unconditional love and forgiveness. When I look at the incarcerated men when I am doing a Kairos weekend I don’t see “offenders.” I see forgiven men. Men for whom Jesus’ forgiveness counts because he died on the cross for them as well as me.

God’s love and forgiveness are indeed universal. God, through the Spirit of Christ is restoring the world entire to him.

And again, the fact of the resurrection proves it.

So let us celebrate Easter by allowing ourselves the hope the disciples had when they realized Jesus actually rose from the dead and conquered their fears. That hope causes us to be born from above because we look to God for direction in life.